The Alpha Twins' Deadly Mistake

Chapter 3 The Blood Moon Cage

Caleb didn’t hesitate.

He crossed the room and shoved me. My head struck the metal headboard. Pain ran down my neck and into my injured shoulder.

Connor stayed in the doorway. “Look at you. You’re so jealous you’d hurt an innocent woman. You’re vicious, Aria. Unstable.”

I touched the back of my head. My fingers came away wet.

Caleb bent over the bed. “You’ll stay in this room until you learn your place. You won’t leave or speak to anyone until you’re ready to beg Chloe for forgiveness on your knees.”

He turned to the guards outside. “Lock it. No one enters or leaves without my command.”

The oak door slammed. A key turned in the lock.

They had locked a Healer in a room full of medical supplies.

I waited until their footsteps faded. Then I pulled the IV from my arm.

Elara had hidden the real medical reports in a pouch inside my robe. One showed Chloe in perfect health. Another recorded the amount of blood taken from me. I folded both and put them back.

I slid off the bed and crawled to the worn rug in the middle of the room. My legs gave way twice. I pushed the rug aside and uncovered the stone floor.

With a shard from a broken vial, I cut my palm.

I dipped two fingers into the cut and drew the old runes for sacrifice and severance. The Blood Moon ritual had been outlawed for centuries. It did not ask the Moon Goddess to release a mate bond.

The lines had to join without a break. I went back over each curve while blood ran down my wrist and spotted the stone.

Every Healer learned why this circle was f*******n. I was using that knowledge exactly once.

It tore the bond out by force.

I finished the circle and pressed my bleeding palm to its center. Heat climbed my arm. The room blurred, but I kept my hand against the floor until the last rune caught red.

(Caleb’s POV)

The whole pack had gathered in the grand hall to celebrate Chloe’s “recovery.” She sat between Connor and me while wolves crowded around her chair with gifts and drinks.

I raised my glass. “To Chloe. To her strength.”

The pack roared its approval.

A decorated cake was wheeled into the hall. I took the silver knife for the first cut.

The blade touched the frosting. Something tore through my chest.

I dropped the knife and clawed at my shirt. My legs folded as the bond ripped loose inside me. Beside me, Connor hit his knees with both hands pressed to his chest.

We coughed dark blood across the white floor.

Glasses stopped halfway to mouths, and Chloe’s chair scraped back behind us. Nobody in the hall knew what they were seeing. Connor and I did.

The pack fell into a horrified silence.

I reached for the place where our mate bond should have been and found it tearing apart.

*Aria.*

Connor looked at me, blood on his teeth. We ran, shoving past the wolves between us and the door. Chloe called after us, but neither of us stopped.

The infirmary door was still locked from the outside. I broke it off its hinges.

The room was empty.

The air smelled of scorched blood.

A circle of runes had burned into the stone floor. Red light still moved along its edges.

Five words had been written on the wall in drying blood.

*The bill has come due.*